7 thoughts on “Our Suicidal Government”

  1. Considering the problem of people simultaneously voting for lower taxes and greater spending, I have often wondered whether one could split taxation (and monetary policy including borrowing) off as a separately elected body/house. This body would be responsible for setting the level and system of tax. With an externally set income the spenders could then focus just on spending, and how to get the most for the allowance they are given. Everyone would be happy!

    Seriously, exploiting this disconnect may be a means to sustainably address entitlement creep. When the majority of a population is on a government subsidy of one form or another, fiscally responsible democracy tends to be overwhelmed. The democratic world is yet to find a solution to this fundamental problem – it helped destroy Rome and it is now helping to destroy most of the democratic western world.

  2. Supposedly the debt limit was a means of forcing the US government to cause spending to equal income at some point. Now that we’re at that point, we’re just ignoring the debt limit.

  3. This body would be responsible for setting the level and system of tax. With an externally set income the spenders could then focus just on spending, and how to get the most for the allowance they are given. Everyone would be happy!

    Specify all spending as percentage of revenues… Oh, what good sport those fights would be when they realize that guns come at the expense of butter…

  4. By suicidal, I mean that government has promised more than it can realistically deliver and, as a result, repeatedly disappoints by providing less than people expect or jeopardizing what they already have.

    I’m a bit underwhelmed by Samuelson’s definition of “suicidal”. I think suicidal means at the least self-destruction of some sort. We see a lot of that in government, for example, the sheer irresponsibility of Obamacare and the spending which was supposed to be a Keynesian stimulus, but which turned out to be special interest spending on Democrat constituents.

    You know, when government actively tries to destroy itself or the society it’s supported by? That’s what I think of, when I think of suicidal government.

    Or the strangling of US enterprise by myopic government bureaucracy. I just waded through airport security a couple of times and it just gotten worse since 2001 and 2002 when the current system was implemented. Sure, lines aren’t quite as bad, but there are so many restrictions and humiliations these days to make up for slightly lower wait times. We can’t bring fluids through (I had to go through a line twice because I had a bottle with some water in it), the humiliation of the backscatter x ray, and we have to take our shoes off.

    But why expect that to change when current leadership only sees that as a boon, a useful excuse to justify high speed rail?

  5. Specify all spending as percentage of revenues…

    Yes I do like that idea – SS, medicare, medicaid, defense, would all effectively be set at a percentage of GDP, thereby preventing entitlement creep. Question is, would this be politically possible?

    Usually government spending focussed people and politicians out number and out vote revenue focused people and politicians. How do you stop politicians from voting their favored government departments rich? How do you resolve the contradiction of the people and the politicians simultaneously being in favor of lower taxes and higher spending? Somehow, I suspect general taxation and spending needs to be democratically separated so as to avoid this contradiction – then expenditures might be fixed to a proportion of revenue.

  7. I will, in future, point to this column when I want to be able to define for someone “hypocrite.” Or, when I need to illustrate the concept of finding a direction by putting a finger up into the air to see which way the wind is blowing.

    For decades student understanding of economics has been subverted by this guy’s textbooks. He *now* thinks we’re being suicidal? Jeez, what gall!

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